I Do
by stxpsign
Summary: July 2013. Finally, Denise and Michelle Christopher are able to get married instead of just their legal partnership. As Michelle waits for Denise at the altar, she relives the memory of when they first met. [Originally posted to AO3 November 28th, 2017.]


Michelle was sure Denise would be beautiful, hell looking at Denise's female relatives in their beautiful saris, she knew just how beautiful the wedding version would be.

But those few minutes, they were feeling like an eternity. Great, Rhonda – her best woman as they had been the closest of friends since right out of their Masters in Social Work degrees. Great, that is where she is to stand, yes.

God, why did they decide to each have 10 bridesmaids? That's so many. Michelle knew she needed to calm down, focus on the fact their own little daughter, Olivia, would start down the aisle with the flowers that she herself picked out. ("Not completely. There was more than a little bit of guidance on my end," Denise had comforted Michelle's wide eyes to that statement. If Olivia had it entirely her way, it would just be a bunch of dandelions. Michelle had needed to make a mental note for the 500th time to remind the girl that those weren't classified as 'flowers'.)

As Connie, another one of Michelle's bridesmaids went to her place, she gave Michelle a comforting squeeze to the shoulder. It would be alright.

That comfort made Michelle close her eyes for just a second, and suddenly she was back.

* * *

It was August of 1979. Fairfax, Virginia. George Mason University.

Did Michelle feel a little pressured to be here? Yes, yes she did. From the second she got her acceptance letter to the Virginia school, her mom went to every woman she could find in the entire small town of Lithonia … Well, actually she'd be damned if her mom hadn't found and told everyone in the entire Atlanta metropolitan area and told them how her little girl was going to that fancy new breakoff from the University of Virginia. And that her daughter would come out of that school a goddamn Social Worker.

A lady Michelle had never met before from Lilburn even sent a gift in the mail of an electric typewriter for her to go to school with.

She didn't know what there was for everyone to be so proud of, she hadn't gotten into any of her top 10 choices: The University of California at Berkley, New York University, Rutgers University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Fordham University, Adelphi University, University of New Hampshire at Durham, University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington at Seattle, and not even the University of Georgia at Athens!

Add onto that the fact that it was only 18 years out of Kennedy's decision to make affirmative action a reality, and she grew up still seeing daily outrage over it. Especially in the past 7 years since Title IX was passed as well. There were white girls at her high school still telling all the black girls during their senior year that they, "Only got an acceptance letter because of affirmative action."

She had only made two trips up to the school before today – move in day, and had not yet met her roommates. Plural, they put her in Brunswick Hall with three different girls from all over the South. 'Why would they match her with a girl from Southern Florida, Eastern Texas, and Western South Carolina? Did they just think everything regarded as "the Deep South" was one area? Southern Florida wasn't even part of "the Deep South"!' She thought to herself.

At least they had sent the pictures the girls had sent in with her application and the girls' names, and from the look of the photo, it would be other black girls. Connie Frank, Ruth Johnson, and Sonya Durant.

* * *

Turns out that Connie girl was way more figured out than Michelle Christopher ever could be. By the time Michelle had gotten up to their room, the girl was seemingly going down to take a nap, having already finished. Even had her hair all wrapped up.

From what she could tell, neither Ruth or Sonya had made an appearance yet and, well, at least there was that going for her.

However, before she got a 'hi' out, the girl's face lit up with joy as she went over to greet the Christopher family.

"Oh thank goodness, I thought no one would show up and I would have somehow ended up accidentally in a room by myself," Connie exclaimed, before putting her hand on Michelle's forearm, "That would be bad for my personality. You're Michelle, right?"

"That she is," Michelle's mother, Lois, butted in, wrapping her arm around her daughter's shoulders, before saying, "Your mama must be so proud, where is she?"

"Oh she and my dad just went back to the hotel they're staying at! We're meeting up again later tonight for dinner, maybe you guys can join us," Connie put on a smile as she said, "And, by the way, I'm Connie."

"The one from South Florida?" Michelle's father, Ray, asked and it made her just want to disappear.

"Uh, yeah! I'm from Fort Myers, so that is Southern Florida," Connie clarified, "Do you want some help moving Michelle in?"

* * *

Somehow, it got less awkward. Connie helped Michelle and her parents place everything, and wasn't opposing to move some of her own stuff if needed. Ruth and Sonya ended up showing up when Michelle was still only three-fourths of the way done and within the same 10 minutes of each other. Soon enough, Connie was just running all over the room trying to help everyone out and introduce herself to everyone.

Dinner ended up being super crowded, apparently everyone's parents were judgmental of Connie's parents' decision to go back to a hotel. Especially Ruth's dad, who everyone had noticed was white and generally looking at everyone in distaste.

She could tell out of everyone, Connie would be the one Michelle would be closest too.

Even through all the work, all of the girls had gotten to know each other. While Michelle was studying Social Work, Connie was studying with a major in Psychology and her minor in Educational Psychology. On the other hand, Sonya was studying Theater and Ruth was studying Kinesiology and was on the Pre-Medical route. It had also been abundantly clear that Sonya didn't understand the work that would be set out for her, and Ruth was always trying to be white.

Plus, Fort Myers and Lithonia were closer to each other than Spartanburg, South Carolina or Dallas, Texas was to either of them … Though that, in the end, didn't necessarily mean anything. It was just an observation Michelle had made.

Michelle thought out loud when seeing Connie's parents, "Wow, your dad is pretty light-skinned compared to your mom," Then gestured to her own parents when she realized she had actually said … that, "It's the opposite way with mine."

"Oh that's cause my dad isn't black," Connie said and to Michelle's raised eyebrow, she clarified, "He's a Seminole."

"Oh," Michelle nodded, "Nice."

* * *

Her observation that she had made that night turned out to be right. Sonya and Ruth didn't end with them on bad terms or anything like that, but there was basically a division in the room. Ruth and Sonya were close, basically they melted into one person, and Connie and Michelle were close.

It was now their second year, and Connie and Michelle had decided to stay together, but just the two of them in a room in Dominion Hall.

"I still can't believe you got through your first year as a Social Work major not taking General Psychology," Connie shook her head as she laughed off.

"You'll help me out though right?" Michelle raised her eyebrow as she asked.

"I will," Connie put her hands up in fake innocence, "But if you're a Social Work student having difficulties in General Psychology you need to seriously reconsider your major," She stated before asking, "Who do you have for it anyway?"

"Let's see … PSY150 …" Michelle trailed off, looking for where the class was on her schedule and the name associated with it, "Dr. James Riordan."

"Oh beware," Connie got up to sit by Michelle, "Pretty sure he's a racist. He didn't say anything outright, but in my class with him he made sure to memorize all the white kids' names in the first week but never could remember mine or other students of color's names. Not the entire semester."

"Great," Michelle let out a groan as she said and fell back on her bed, massaging her temples, "As if this school wasn't white enough as it is."

"I know," Connie rolled her eyes as she said, "But listen it'll be alright, just look for the other students of color in your class, that's what I did for my class with him."

* * *

Connie's advice? Just lost part of its success rate.

This class had to be the smallest Michelle had taken at George Mason yet – which she found strange for such a commonly needed class, then again it was the 8:00 AM Monday-Wednesday-Friday session.

The professor was already in there, his cocky behavior already out and proud, though his face dropped seeing her. She could tell why; she was seemingly the only other person who had arrived yet for the class who wasn't white.

Finding a seat where all the desks surrounding it were not yet taken, she sat down, with hopes maybe one would come in who had been given the same advice Connie had given her.

The minutes passed, maybe Michelle had showed up too early? The awkwardness of no one caring to even talk to her was growing, until two minutes before class was to start and she ran in. It was a relief from all the hairstyles Michelle was seeing on the white girls, though this girl seemed she never left the style of the 1970s with straight black hair only ending near the middle of her back. And she was noticeably brown. Lucky for Michelle, she was able to make eye contact with the girl and she came to sit in the desk just behind her.

"No mullet or big hair?" Michelle joked.

"Oh, god no," Denise returned, clearly breathing hard.

'She must have been running over here, poor thing,' Michelle thought, 'But her breathless is kind of attractive,' She let her mind wander to before shaking it out of her head.

Turns out Michelle made herself pay attention for the famous icebreakers, starting with herself. 'At least she wouldn't then have to wait long to hear from the other girl,' she reminded herself before reciting like clockwork, which at this point icebreakers basically were, "Hey. I'm Michelle Christopher, I am a sophomore here at George Mason. I'm originally from a small town just outside of Atlanta, Georgia called Lithonia. My major is Social Work, which is why I'm in this class cause we have to take it. A fun fact about me is that when I was younger, I would collect pine cones."

The girl behind her took a deep breath before she waived and said, "Hello everyone. My name is Denise Puri. I'm also from a city far away from here but you've probably heard of before," The girl waited for a few seconds, probably to keep everyone on their edges so she could deliver the punchline, "Called San Francisco, California. I'm here because I'm in the Criminology program, and that's both as to why I'm in this class and here at George Mason. Which I'm a freshman here. And a fun fact about me is that even though I'm from California, my favorite hockey team is the Detroit Red Wings. So don't come and talk to me about the Los Angeles Kings."

The rest of the people were boring, well – to be fair to them – Michelle didn't really care about anyone else's icebreakers so she just zoned out the entire world until she saw the professor pass out and start to go over the syllabus.

For the most part, it was the standard. Attendance policy, no discrimination policy, the minimum grade requirements, the repeating of the part of the honor code on cheating and plagiarism. The learning objectives were even standard, as well as the fact that there would be three evenly spaced out exams. The schedule didn't seem like too much to handle either.

Week 1 was Science of Psychology. Week 2 was Biological Basis of Behavior. Week 3 was Sensation and Perception. Week 4 was States of Consciousness. Week 5 was Learning. Week 6 was Memory. Week 7 was Cognition and Mental Abilities. Week 8 was Motivation and Emotion. Week 9 was Life Span Development. Week 10 was Intelligence and Personality. Week 11 was Stress and Health Psychology. Week 12 was Social Psychology. Week 13 was Psychological and Personality Disorders. Week 14 was Type of Therapies. Week 15 was just called Presentations. Then, there was the final exam on Week 16.

However, the one that stuck out was the final project, as he explained, "You will be in groups of two or three and do a display board presentation more in detail on something we went over this semester," He pointed to Denise and Michelle before saying, "I trust you two will end up working together."

It got a laugh from the entire class, well at least everyone except the two of them, who seemingly did not understand the joke. However, the two did look at each other, and with a nod and shrug, seemed to agree to work together anyway.

* * *

"Do you think it was just because the two of you were the only ones with some melanin?" Connie asked in surprise after being told what he said.

"I'd think so, there was honestly nothing else to imply we would work well together," Michelle said, putting her books back up on the shelf above her desk, "Though she does seem cool."

"So you're going to work together?" Connie asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, I think we're going to try expanding on the Sensation and Perception," Michelle said, going over to her closet to get out a jacket, "Actually I have to head out in 5, we're gonna see 'Those Lips, Those Eyes' at the theatre then go that new place in Reston, The Melting Pot, where we'll talk about the project."

"Wow," Connie let out, smacking her lips, "Didn't realize you liked girls, Michelle."

"Because I don't," Michelle leaned in, teasing her friend by leaning a little too close for comfort, "We've done the same, or a similar, thing probably every other weekend, Connie, and I'm clearly not attracted to you," She finished, going back to her normal stance and proclaiming, "I'm not queer."

"Well, it'd be totally fine with me if you were, just so you know. Fuck Reagan and what he's saying about the movement being horrible for society," Connie said, moving from Michelle's side of the room back to her side and getting out her Statistics for Research Design textbook and going on, "While we're at it, fuck Carter too for saying he absolutely doesn't support the rights movement even after he had discrimination based on attraction in the IRS and foreign service banned," However, Connie's anger didn't seem to end there as she went on to emotionally finish, "And fuck the states of Virginia and Florida and Georgia and so many others for still having same-sex activity be illegal."

"Great, Connie, but I'm still not," Michelle said as she put on her shoes, this time making sure to emphasize the 'not,' before thinking out loud, "Wouldn't being a black woman be enough of hatred by people to have to go through in one life?"

"Maybe, but the self-hatred of being ashamed and having to keep a secret like that your entire life and not be with someone you actually love and feel attraction to …" Connie trailed off before finding her words again, "Would that not be worse of a life sentence than just other people hating you but you being proud of who you are?"

Michelle puckered her lips as if she was deep in thought before waving her hand with a, "Doesn't matter anyway," She grabbed her bag and keys as she headed towards the door, "I'm just going to go over early. Wouldn't hurt anybody."

"You do that," Was the last thing she heard from Connie as their dorm room door closed behind her.

* * *

"You haven't been waiting long, I hope?" The younger girl walked up to Michelle and rhetorically asked. Of course, Denise had just been about a minute later than they agreed on, but with Michelle showing up early it was way longer than it should have been.

However, Michelle wouldn't let that show, "No, I just got here too. Want to go in?"

"Yes," Denise said, leading the way towards the entrance, "You know, I loved Frank Langella in 'Dracula' so I've wanted to see this."

"Me too, wanted to see this that is, not the Dracula part," Michelle waved her hand to say, "But Glynnis O'Connor in 'Ode to Billy Joe,' changed my life when I was 15."

"When's your birthday Michelle?" Denise asked.

"That's a strange question but it's April 7th," Michelle let her know, "When's yours?"

"March 14th," Denise smiled as she was handed the tickets from the guy at the booth, "I know you study Social Work but what are your actual plans to do with that?"

"I want to work either for a foster care or adoption agency, help all those children get placed somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for the baby boom, I wouldn't be here – and neither would you – if it hadn't happened, but there's so many left over from the kids born in it having kids now, and there were so many in the system because of the boom, that's what woke me up. It may be a stereotypical social worker but it's what I want to do," Michelle shrugged. It was nice having another friend, someone she could talk to just freely, "What about you? You gonna be a cop, Miss Criminology?" She teased.

"You could call it that," Denise shrugged, "More like federal agent though would be a long term goal. Something like FBI Agent Denise Puri," She puffed out her chest as she said, before laughing it off with a, "But could you actually imagine the FBI hiring a 5'7" brown girl? Especially one who's gay?"

"Oh, you're into that … Same-sex stuff?" Michelle questioned, taken aback suddenly.

"Yeah," Denise nodded, "If that freaks you out you can totally go, but I'm gonna still stay here and watch this movie."

"No, no, it's fine, I like you," Michelle closed her eyes as she tried to clear her throat properly and wave off the girl's worries, "I mean, I'm not a lesbian, so not in a gay way. But friends do this too, right?"

"Yeah," Denise smiled.

* * *

"Wipe that stupid ass grin off your face."

That had been Michelle's first words to her roommate as she got back and finished telling what happened. That day and revelation didn't slow their 'friendship' down one bit, though. They'd only gotten closer over the next months. In fact, the comments they would make to race in class would always make them snicker later on in the day as they thought back to Dr. Riordan's face each time. He hated them, for sure.

And even Connie and Denise were blossoming their own friendship. Though that was the thing that struck Michelle, Connie and Denise always had a pure friendship. Same with Michelle and Connie. It was a true friendship, that's why when the day came that everything about Michelle and Denise changed it shouldn't have been surprising to either one.

* * *

Not one out of the three of them had gone home for Thanksgiving break, it was too much of a travel, especially as they would just do the same travel in another couple weeks for winter break. Therefore, a mix of TV, takeout, and delivery – as well as beer that Connie convinced one of the older guys from George Mason to get them – was their Thanksgiving.

Football and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade apparently went super well with delivery pizza – a Hawaiian for Denise, BBQ Chicken for Connie, and a simple Pepperoni for Michelle. Which apparently also went well with takeout Chinese and Indian food – which Denise started to scold Michelle for the second she opened up about how if she wanted authentic Indian food, she could have just asked and this stuff was garbage. "Pineapple on pizza is garbage and not authentic pizza," Was Michelle's only reply to that.

However, something about her that day just made Michelle want to kiss her, and in their state of tiredness after overeating, that's exactly what she did.

Not only did it make both of them wide awake, but Michelle could swear she heard Connie's head perk up with the statement afterwards of, "I think I might love you."

* * *

The last of Michelle's bridesmaids, Jeannette, accidentally bumping into Michelle as she walked to her place finally brought the woman out of it and back to the reality. The now.

The fact they lived in Maryland now, and they could finally have the wedding and official marriage they had been dreaming of, though Denise had long already changed her name to take the last name Christopher. The fact they were there with their little Olivia, and her older brother but still their little Mark.

Denise had gotten into the profession she wanted, a federal employee, though it took until 1999 until she got past the application process, lining up with the same time Denise changed her last name to Christopher. Originally starting in the Department of the Interior, Denise got transferred to the Department of Homeland Security shortly after its founding in November 2002. The only thing Michelle could complain about on that was she never got to meet Denise's co-workers anymore compared to her old jobs with local police agencies. Everything was top secret.

Michelle? She couldn't complain how her life turned out. She ended up getting a job with Child Protective Services, and their two children were adopted as well.

As she finished thinking of everything they've accomplished since then, that's when she saw her, coming down the aisle. As tears started to flow down Michelle's face, all she knew was how lucky she was that her soon-to-be-wife was the beautiful Denise Christopher.

* * *

It was never in either's dreams that 3 years later, Denise's job would relocate them to Denise's hometown of San Francisco.

But Michelle would follow Denise anywhere, as long as they could be together.

Until death do them part.


End file.
